Sharon Stone showed her delight on social media as she presented the iconic Palme d’Or to the first woman director to ever win the award alone at Cannes Film Festival.
The Palme d’Or award is referred to as the most prestigious award available to directors. And this year's awards ceremony was particularly poignant as it marked the first time a female director won it alone.
Sharon showed her joy at the win by posting an image of a newspaper cutting showing her presenting the award to Julia Ducournau for her film, Titane. The caption alongside the photo read, “One of the best moments of my life!”
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In 1993, Jane Campion became the first woman to win the Palme d'Or for her film The Piano. However, she did not win this award alone, as director, Chen Kaige, tied with her for his film Farewell My Concubine.
This year, however, Julia Ducournau made history at the festival as she's the first female director to win the prestigious award on her own. She was awarded the Palme d'Or for her film Titane.
Titane is an eccentric film that is filled with abject horror, sex and violence. The French production stars Agathe Rousselle as the main character, a serial killer who disguises herself as a missing person and is also impregnated by a car.
The unusual premise for this body-horror thriller is not a total shock to fans of Ducournau. The director made headlines in 2016 with her cannibalistic coming-of-age film Raw, which she both wrote and directed.
Sharon was clearly delighted to be awarding this award to a woman nominee as the film industry continues to make strides in diversity.
However, the evening was far from perfect as Spike Lee, the jury president, accidentally let slip before the reveal that Julia Ducournau was winning the Palme d'Or. "I apologise for messing up," he told the audience before the ceremony.
Spike and Sharon presented the official award to Julia with Spike joking about his blunder, “She’s not going to mess this up!” he quipped.
Despite Spike Lee jumping the gun, Julia Ducournau was still emotional as it was announced that her film Titane had won. She told the audience in her acceptance speech, "This evening has been perfect because it's been imperfect."
The Palme d'Or has been awarded to many iconic directors over the years. Quentin Tarantino won the award in 1994 for his film Pulp Fiction.
Ken Loach won the prestigious award in 2006 for his film The Wind that Shakes the Barley. He also won the award in 2006 for his film I, Daniel Blake.
Bong Joon-ho won in 2019 for his film Parasite and was the last director to pick up the award—until now—as the 2020 Cannes Film festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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